£5.6 Million Pounds for Charity!

On Friday, 13th May 2005, Freemasons from Cheshire gave £5,650,918 to Charity - almost £2 Million more that was anticpiated.

Since 1996 Cheshire Freemasons have been fund raising from amongst their own members, families and friends towards their 2005 Festival for the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys (RMTGB).

A Festival is a special event where the Freemasons from a specific region, in this case Cheshire, come together and give money towards a good cause.

Festivals are happy occasions at which Freemasons and their Ladies meet one another in a convivial social environment. They are held to celebrate the completion of a Province's appeal on behalf of the Trust. In most cases this will have lasted for several years and involved a great deal of hard work on the part of the members of the Province together with their Ladies, Families and Friends.

Festival Stewards
In 2005, the 20th Anniversary Festival was hosted by the Province of Cheshire and was held at the Manchester United Football Club, Old Trafford on Friday 13th May.

At the beginning of October 2004 there were 37 beneficiaries receiving the care and protection of the Trust from within the Province of Cheshire. These beneficiaries are receiving assistance due to the death of a parent, desertion of a parent or the disability of a parent, each difficulty or sad event bringing its own unique heartbreak and turmoil. During the last year an additional twenty-five young people received grants from UndergradAid and two received grants under the TalentAid scheme.

In the last twelve months alone, a total of over £170,727 was expended by the Trust on its beneficiaries from within the Province of Cheshire.
The support provided ranges from fees, regular Maintenance Allowances or Scholarships for those attending University or Institutes of Higher Education, to assist towards accommodation costs and, in particularly low-income families, a Christmas Grant to assist in bringing some Christmas cheer. The children and the young people under the protection of the Craft thank the Province for its hard work on their behalf, which enables them to maintain confidence in the belief that the Craft will continue to assist them in preparation for life - as their fathers would have done had they been able so to do.

You can find more information on the RMTGB web site at www.rmtgb.org